I must clarify that I do like camels, especially the fluffy double-hump kind typically seen in Northern China. It's just that wherever I travel, my desire for exotic local fare takes over ...
Before I go on about the taste of camel hoofs, here's an overview of the food you can expect if you're visiting Datong. Northern Chinese cooking is described by many as "Nong You Chi Jiang," or heavy on the use of oil and sauces. Shanxi Province adds its own twist with the liberal use of Aged Vinegar to balance the oiliness, and its unparalleled varieties of rustic pasta. The City of Datong in northern Shanxi, almost bordering the open steppes of Inner Mongolia, takes the flavour further by using exotic ingredients with a nomadic influence.
Having limited time in Datong and wanting the best, authentic local cuisine, we consulted local opinion on Dianping.com (in Chinese) as usual and fixed our sight on three possible candidates: Lin Lao Lao, Yong He Mei Shi Cheng, and Lao Ye Miao. We ended up picking Lin Lao Lao as this was our taxi driver Pei Shifu's own recommendation as well.
Food Review: LIN LAO LAO (Datong, Shanxi)
Address: Dong Feng Hou Jie, Datong
Hours: 11:00 to 22:00?
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (Note review is for a different branch)
Directions: Walking out of the Train Station, walk along the main road (Wei Du Da Dao) for 10 minutes and turn right at Dong Feng Dong Jie. Dong Feng Hou Jie is a side street on the left. Or if in doubt, just ask the locals for Lin Lao Lao.
This restaurant turned out to be an excellent choice, as to this date my wife is still raving about the above Nan Shao Qie Zi, or Southern-style Sauteed Eggplants. Though not exclusively a Shanxi dish, these slightly fried eggplants were perfectly crisp on the skin, melt-in-the-mouth soft in the flesh, and coated with a thick, slightly sweet brown sauce. And the budget-friendly price -- RMB 16 (CAD$2.4) -- made it even better.
Next on the list was probably the most famous Shanxi dish of all -- Guo You Rou, or literally Oil-Rinsed Pork. Behind its somewhat unappealing name was actually a refreshing dish of perfectly tender, flash-fried pork seasoned with the province's characteristic secret ingredient, the prized Shanxi Aged Vinegar. Any residual oiliness in the pork was completely counterbalanced by the dark vinegar's sharp acidity and complexity, and did not taste heavy at all. Only RMB 18 (CAD$2.7) for such a well executed meat entree – and at one of Datong's best-known restaurants – this was certainly one of the best deals of our trip. But there's more.
The incredibly cheap pricing of every dish gave us the incentive to splurge, and my eyes became fixated on a certain exotic, authentically northern delicacy on the expensive end of the menu. This would become one of my favourite memories of Datong ...
Camel Hoof in a Red-Braised Sauce (Hong Shao Tuo Zhang). I apologize to any reader who may feel offended by my dietary choice, but I just couldn't resist as 1) it was an authentic local dish, 2) it's not an endangered species, 3) the locals must use the rest of the camel aside from munching on the hoof, and 4) I trust that it was butchered in the same manner as the locals carve their beef or lamb.
Each camel hoof is said to yield only one small piece of meat and tendon, and as a result there were only a few in this dish with the cheaper and more common beef tendons filling the rest of the plate. The camel hoofs were easily distinguishable – these were the tendons with an oval-shaped piece of soft, bulbous meat attached at the bottom of the hoof, hence the Chinese name of Tuo Zhang (camel's palm). The cooking style adhered to the Nong You Chi Jiang approach characteristic of the North, with a deliciously thick, heavy brown sauce smothering the soft and chewy hoofs and tendons.
It was a huge dish and I don't remember how I managed to finish it all (and this was after the eggplants and pork), so this must have tasted very good. I can't quite make out the decorative characters, though they kind of look like Si Bai Nian (400 years). The price was another absolute bargain -- in Beijing I can't imagine this dish selling for anything less than RMB 200-300, but here in Datong it was an unbelievable RMB 68 (CAD$10.3). How's that for splurging?
Following the local tradition we did order one pasta dish, a refreshing bowl of cold noodles named Qiao Shou Ban You Mian (Skilfully Hand-blended Hulless Oat Noodles). Once again the focal point of the flavours was -- what else -- Shanxi's famous Aged Vinegar. This was a good choice after all the thick sauces earlier in the meal.
We found Lin Lao Lao to be an excellent restaurant for its price -- the same meal in Beijing, with an order of camel hoof at the centre of the feast, would have easily cost RMB 300-400. Our meal of excellent and authentic Datong cuisine with large enough portions for 3 people, at a proper restaurant recommended by a local taxi driver, ended up costing only RMB 124 (CAD$18.9). Combined with the excellent hotel deal (see review at end of article) this made Datong an inexpensive and definitely worthwhile destination for us en route from Pingyao to Beijing.
Bill for Two Persons
| Red-Braised Camel Hoof | RMB 68 |
| Oil-Rinsed Pork | RMB 18 |
| Southern-style Sauteed Eggplants | RMB 16 |
| Skilfully Hand-Blended Hulless Oat Noodles | RMB 12 |
| Draft Beer (Qingdao) | RMB 10 |
| TOTAL | RMB 124 (CAD$18.8) |
Food Review: HENG SHAN FAN DIAN (Hunyuan, Shanxi)
Address: Heng Shan Bei Lu, Hunyuan
Hours: 10:00-21:00?
Website/Map: Official Website (in Chinese)
Directions: You're probably going to the Hanging Temple by taxi if you need to refer to this review. Just ask your driver to go to Heng Shan Fan Dian for lunch -- it's one of the biggest hotel in the area.
Here's another restaurant recommendation by yet another local taxi driver. If you're visiting the spectacular but remote Hanging Temple, you'll likely need a lunch spot in the Hengshan area like we did. Recommended by our driver Yu Shifu, this is a reasonably-priced restaurant located inside one of the town's bigger hotels.
We treated Yu Shifu to lunch as per the Chinese custom when renting a taxi for a day, and asked him for his recommendation on local dishes. After my wife picked a meat entree of her choice, Yu Shifu completed the ordering with three outstanding dishes that we frankly had never heard of.
My wife picked the above Hu Pi Jiao Ji Kuai, or Tiger-skinned Peppers with Chicken Chunks, which I suspect is a Sichuan dish. This actually turned out surprisingly good even according to Yu Shifu, with a slight hint of chili on the deep fried chicken and some thunderously crunchy peppers. These large, meaty chunks of peppers were oil-fried to a crispiness akin to thick-cut potato chips, and did not last long on our table.
After that it was all Yu Shifu's choices of Shanxi peasant fare, starting with a large bowl of dark, mildly bitter vegetable aptly named Ku Cai, or Bitter Greens. I'm quite used to the bitter melon of Southern China which, as Yu Shifu explained, served the same purpose as Ku Cai does for the people of Shanxi. The bitterness is utilized to achieve the effect of Xia Huo, or "lowering the heat," in the Yin and Yang of the human body. Good for the prevention of acne, sore throat and intestinal problems, as Traditional Chinese Medicine theories say.
Next came a bowl of Wan Dou Mian, or Green-pea-flour Noodles. Prior to this trip I had been so ignorant of culinary traditions of the North and had no idea that green peas could be grounded into flour to make noodles. These noodles were smooth-textured and just slightly chewy, and were mildly flavoured with the local favourite Shanxi Aged Vinegar. This is just one more of Shanxi's famously extensive varieties of pasta -- we've tried to order a different kind everyday but still only managed to try eight or nine different shapes.
But Yu Shifu saved his absolute best recommendation for last -- another rustic Shanxi dish known as Zha You Gao, or Fried Doughnuts. These deep-fried balls of yellow millet flour came with two different fillings, one sweet with a red date paste, and one savory with cabbages and mixed veggies. Both were excellent -- I preferred the cabbage while my wife preferred the red date -- as the dough was crunchy but not too oily. We order the same dish twice in Wutaishan later but those was nowhere as good as this dish here.
Our meal for three people cost a reasonable RMB 67 (CAD$10.1), more than half of which (RMB 38) was due to the one dish that we picked. We probably should have just left all the ordering up to Yu Shifu.
Bill for Three Persons
| Tiger-Skinned Peppers and Chicken Chunks | RMB 38 |
| Bitter Greens | RMB 8 |
| Green-Pea-Flour Noodles | RMB 12 |
| Fried Doughnuts (Half Order) | RMB 9 |
| TOTAL | RMB 67 (CAD$10) |
Hotel Review: DATONG JIAHE EXPRESS HOTEL
Address: 1 Zhanqian Jie, Datong
Price: RMB 190 for double room with private shower/toilet, summer 2011
Website/Map: Booking page at CTrip.com
Directions: You can't miss it -- it's just right in front of Datong train station.
We booked this excellent new business hotel located at Datong's most convenient location -- straight in front of the train station. New clean laminate flooring. New IKEA-ish furniture. New modern shower room. Excellent sound-proofing with no noise from the trains. Decent breakfast buffet. Something of this quality would easily charge RMB 300 in most major cities (and perhaps RMB 400 in Beijing), but because this was backwater Datong, they charged only RMB 200. And walk-ins can probably get an even better deal too.
And it's not only conveniently located for public transportation, but it's also within walking distance to the Lin Lao Lao restaurant reviewed above. And the bathroom was by far the cleanest we've seen in China for hotels costing less than RMB 200. If I ever return to Datong by train, I know exactly where I would book.
And as a bonus, some of the funniest Chinglish translations can be found in the room service guide. If you can read Chinese, cover the above picture and let's see if you can come up with the original Chinese terms for:
- Was Set
- Power Word
- Wool Fabric
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